Village hires Pisgah manager as recreation director

August 14, 2012

SARANAC LAKE - The village has made Mount Pisgah Ski Center Manager Charlie Martin its first recreation director.

Village trustees voted unanimously Monday to provisionally appoint Martin to the new position. He'll be paid $31,200 a year to continue serving as manager of the village-run ski center while also taking on the responsibilities of recreation director, a position village officials have talked about creating for years. While his title is specific to recreation, the way the job was described Monday, Martin will be in charge of overseeing and coordinating events held in the village's parks.

"We feel we're in need of somebody full time to take care of our parks and basically our events," Trustee Allie Pelletieri said. "We have at least 15 parks listed in the park use form. That's quite a few parks to keep up with. We have 140 permits issued each year, and that takes our staff valuable time to do."

Pelletieri said Martin has already been working with village officials to come up with a fee schedule for using the parks.

"We don't want to overcharge, but we do need to get some money to help offset the maintenance of these parks," Pelletieri said.

Martin would also oversee lifeguards at the beach, ski center employees and the marketing of Mount Pisgah, Pelletieri said.

Article Links

"We also have things we've been talking about, like putting in athletic fields at the old dump, there's a lot of talk about the new beach, or the new old beach, and we still want to see where we're going with the skateboard park," Pelletieri said. "So we need somebody that's going to be there to head those things."

Village Manager John Sweeney said after the meeting that the need for the position came up repeatedly during meetings on the village's comprehensive plan.

He said the village didn't need to advertise the position before giving it to Martin.

"I contacted civil service," he said. "It's a pre-existing position with the village of Saranac Lake, and because we have a qualified individual, it's non-competitive and we can do what we did."